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August 31, 2016

OK I know fall is fast approaching and lots of people have moved on tot wearing fall polish colors and drinking Pumpkin Spice everything, but I am not one to rush the seasons. Plus it's still like 87 degrees everyday. So my NOTD includes these adorable seahorses and some beachy colors. The seahorses were done with nail vinyls from Whats Up Nails. Vinyls are my new favorite nail art tool. They are so easy and they look fantastic!

I used Essie Viva Antigua for the turquoise and OPI Infinite Shine Hurry Up & Wait for the sand color. This mani definitely has that summer feeling for these last lingering days of the season!

So are you still wearing summer nail colors or have you moved on to fall? Or are you somewhere in between?

August 28, 2016

Are you ready to drool today? I hope so, because if you love cozy fall colored creme, you are going to love the Zoya Urban Grunge cremes! Zoya Courtney is an oxblood red creme. It's a little lighter than some of the oxblood colors we saw last fall. Zoya describes it as "beet root" red, but I always think of beets as much more purple. This has a hint of purple, but it is mostly a strong deep red.

This is two coats. Courtney is a little on the jellyfish side, so I sill had a lot of VNL after one coat. You can see I did a thinner second coat on my index finger and still have some VNL there. For the rest of the nails, I used a slightly thicker layer for the second coat. The formula was great though, super nice to apply. Get used to that because I'll be saying it for this whole post!

Zoya Wyatt is a hunter green creme with a nice moody fall edge. It has some blue tones to it, almost like a deep wintergreen. Green is usually a fresh color, but this manages to feel a little dusty and grunge-y. If you're a green lover, you should definitely grab Wyatt!

This is two buttery, flawless coats. It could definitely be a one-coater, depending on your application. I actually prefer to do two thinner coats, so I very rarely find one-coaters that I like at only one coat. But it is beautifully pigmented and the perfect consistency.

Zoya Mallory is a bright cobalt blue creme. This is the one polish in the collection that doesn't feel like fall as much as the others, but I love a good cobalt blue, so I'm not complaining! I sometimes need a kick of vibrant blue in the winter, and I'll be reaching for this one when I do.

This is one coat of Mallory. It is very pigmented and coves well in one coat. I probably should have done a second coat for the camera, but it looked completely opaque to my eyes. The formula was a little thinner than the others, though still easy to apply. I would also double up on base coat. I had some staining on my skin, so this could be a possible stainer (I haven't worn it yet for a mani though, so I could be wrong!).

This plum creme might be my new favorite purple. Zoya Tara is just delicious looking, it's a perfectly balance plum, just enough red and purple mixed together. It's dark enough that it looks perfect for fall, but not so dark that it looks muddy or black. This is the perfectly plummy creme I've been looking for!

This is two coats of Tara and the formula was awesome. Nice and pigmented, great consistency and smooth application.

I don't usually think of taupes as interesting shades, but Zoya Noah is a pretty interesting taupe. It's a little bit of a yellow-beige, but it has some gray tones to it to grunge it up. It is pretty complex looking in person, you have a hard time figuring out what color to really call it. It's a neutral, but it has some edge so it won't be boring. I like it a lot and will be wearing it the next time my life calls for a neutral.

This is one coat, even for me! It is very pigmented and doesn't need a second coat, even with my tendency towards thin coats. It is a little on the thicker side, but very easy to apply and the thickness helps it cover evenly in just one coat.

Zoya August is a gray creme that reminds me of seagulls at the beach. Maybe that just came to my mind because I've been spending so much time at the beach recently, but seagulls really do have beautiful gray colors in their feathers! Zoya calls this a "full coverage gray like a fine, expensive leather with a mid-ranged, balanced tone". It is nicely balanced, not too blue-toned, so it will be great for a wide variety of skin tones.

This is one coat. It is perfectly opaque in one coat, like Noah, but I feel it shows any imperfections in my nails. When I actually wear this, I'll probably do two coats. The formula was really good though, very easy to apply. Zoya really knocked the formulas out of the park in this collection. They are all super pigmented and have a great consistency that makes them easy to apply.

*Sent for review*

Overall, I think these cremes are all really beautiful for fall and you can't go wrong with the formulas. Zoya is calling them "one coat" cremes, and honestly, they are probably correct. I just personally prefer applying two thinner coats, so you may be able to do one coat of almost all of these. I would say Courtney is the only one that needed two coats. My favorites are Wyatt (no surprise there, it's green!) and Tara, but I really like the whole group of them quite a lot!

August 26, 2016

Can't believe it's Friday again already! I am currently enjoying two weeks of vacation from work, so the time feels like it's flying by and summer is slipping away from me! Today I have a pretty new Lynnderella that is perfect for this time of year, Lynnderella Blueberry Fairy. Blueberries are still in season and delicious, and Blueberry Fairy is a delicious shimmery treat. This polish has blue shimmer, aqua microglitter and a lilac pink shimmer that was hard to capture in these photos. The pink shimmer is much more prominent in person and makes this polish more unique. I think the pink shimmer is also why this looks like a paler blue in some of my photos. The camera just picked up more of the pink glow sometimes. This is a gorgeous polish, one of my new favorites!

This is two easy peasy coats. It was great to apply and perfectly smooth after one layer of top coat.

August 21, 2016

Although I'm knee-deep in swatching fall collections, I still have a few summer goodies left to show you! The weather here is distinctly summer-y, so I'm not feeling fall stuff yet anyway. Today I have two new shades from the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Secret Garden collection for summer. First up is Sally Hansen Freesia Your Mind, a bright fuchsia pink creme. This is a great pink with berry/blue undertones and it looks fantastic with all the shine the Miracle Gel top coat adds.

This is two super easy coats. I do love the Miracle Gel formula. It has that gel-like consistency that makes the polish really stay right where you apply it. The larger, oval-tipped brush allows for a nice shape by the cuticles, so I barely need any clean-up. I finished this off with one layer of the Miracle Gel top coat.

This is a perfect end of summer shade while the weather is still steamy! Sally Hansen Ba-Bloom is a hot orange coral with plentiful golden shimmer. This one has a touch more pink/peach in person, but it is more of an orange coral for sure. The shimmer is so beautiful in the sunshine!

This is two coats as well and the application was also excellent. I used one layer of Miracle Gel Top Coat here too.

*Sent for review*

Both of these shades are limited edition and are available at a drugstore near you!

August 19, 2016

Happy Friday!! Hope everyone made it through the week OK and that you have some good weekend plans. I am planning to do a lot of kayaking this weekend and catch up on some sleep. I've been staying up too late watching the Olympics! Speaking of the Olympics, I used this polish, Lynnderella Athlacquer in a Team USA mani I did last week and it was perfect. Athlacquer is "Athleisure for nails" and is a stunning shimmery royal blue with teeny red flecks and holo teal microglitter.

This was two easy coats. It applied like a dream. I used one layer of top coat and it was nicely shiny and smooth.

August 17, 2016

Despite the heat wave we've been having here, I have some more OPI fall swatches for you today! These polishes bring to mind crisp fall days, the crunch of the leaves on the ground and cozy sweaters. First up is OPI Freedom of Peach, a peach creme with caramel tones. Thanks to the addition of some brown, this is definitely a fall color, not a light summery or spring-y peach. I think it will appeal to people who don't like brown polish though, as it is still a nice peachy caramel hue. Now I want a dessert with peaches and caramel!

This is three thin coats of Freedom of Peach. The coverage was very good, you should be fine with two regular coats. I think I was expecting it to be streaky maybe, but it wasn't. It had a nice consistency.

Now this is a polish for the chocolate lovers! OPI Squeaker of the House is a lovely rich milk chocolate creme. It has some deep taupe undertones and should be very beautiful on a wide variety of skin tones.

This is two buttery perfect coats. Squeaker of the House was very easy to apply and nicely opaque.

OPI Shh... It's Top Secret! just transports me to fall and winter. I love wearing this kind of super vampy black coffee brown, especially on toes. In some lighting, there are some deep wine/reddish tones to this shade, but in darker light, you really just see a very deep brown.

This is two coats. Application was easy due to the great formula. It's always nice when such a dark color has a good consistency, saves me time on clean-up!

OPI Madam President confuses me a little. The description calls this a "commanding red", but I do find it to be quite a pinkish red. I guess it's kind of like a bright watermelon red. Red or pink, it's very pretty and I like it a lot!!

This is two coats. It was a little on the thinner side and ran into my cuticles a bit. But it is nicely opaque and even, so just make sure not to load the brush up with too much polish.

Another of the red cremes in this collection, OPI We the Female is a deep cranberry red. This will be so perfect in the fall and leading up to the holidays too. I can just see this color on my nails wrapped around a mug of warm apple cider.

This is three thin coats. I found I had some bare areas after the second coat, so I went with a third to even it out. The formula was a little thinner than some of the others, but still pretty easy to apply.

OPI by Popular Vote is described as a "cool apple red". It has some pinkish/magenta and maybe even purplish tones to it, but I can see an apple red. Like a gala apple, how they have little pink hints. I have tons of red cremes, but I think OPI by Popular Vote is more unique than many of them. I will have to see if I can find any close in tone. It's really pretty!

This is two coats and the formula is great. Very easy to apply and perfect coverage.

The OPI Washington D.C. collection also includes three special limited edition shades. Kerry Washington is OPI's "Creative Ambassador" for this collection, so these three shades have names related to her. OPI Inside the ISABELLEtway is a caramel tan creme. This is a nice warm light brown and it looks very rich.

This is three thin coats. I had some patchiness and VNL at two coats, so I did add the third. At three thin coats, the coverage is good. It was pretty easy to apply though.

OPI "Liv" in the Gray is a great deep slate gray creme. It has some tinges of blue green to it. I like that it's pretty neutral, but still looks sort of edgy. I feel like this color is begging for some stamping or something.

This is two really nice, easy coats. Lovely formula and great pigmentation.

And last, but definitely not least, we have OPI Kerry Blossom, a deep reddish plum. I don't care how many red purple cremes I own, I love them all and I am not sorry that I hoard them like it's my job. They are all so pretty!

This is three coats. Two coats left me with some streaks. I would let this one dry completely between coats, it has a streaking/patchiness tendency.

*Sent for review*

If you missed my first bunch of OPI Washington D.C. swatches, you can check them out here. My top favorites from this collection are definitely CIA= Color Is Awesome, Suzi- The First Lady of Nails, and Never a Dulles Moment. Blue, green, and yellow- so typical for me! Overall though, I think this is my favorite OPI fall collection since Touring America Fall 2011 and Germany Fall 2012. It just has every color I would want to wear in the fall!

The OPI Washington D.C. collection is available now at professional salons.